Fantasies
by MarshAngel
Summary: Serena's cynicism about love and romance are thrown out when her best friend finds the man of her dreams


Title: Scene V: Fantasies   
Rating: PG  
Author: MarshAngel  
E-mail: watsonma@hotmail.com  
Web page: http://angelmoon.sinfree.net  
For my best friend who believes in everyone and everything but never herself.  
  
This is jus a re-upload just to make this easier to read.

I can't pinpoint the exact day I stopped believing, not in God but in fantasy and   
magic, and in romance. Maybe I'm a cynic but I think almost all of us stop believing in these   
things at some point, some earlier than others. 

Then again maybe that's not true. Maybe I never believed. Yes, that does sound more   
correct. I don't think I ever believed in those things. What I had instead was hope, a hope   
that gradually died without the necessary evidence to feed its hungry desire.   
Even as a young child, I never believed in magic. I used to wish with all my heart   
that there were fairies, elves, gnomes, and happy little sprites. I read dozens of stories   
involving magic and mystery, from Cinderella to the latest Enid Blyton fairy story. When I   
got older and graduated to romance novels, I used to dream that some tall, dark, handsome,   
arrogant man would walk into my life determined to make me his. In my heart I knew it   
would never happen but one could hope right?

I gave up hope after much observation. I watched couples fight over pointless things.   
In my dream world fantasies real life things like money and the little details of relationships   
never intruded. In my fantasy everyone except really mean people I didn't like had that one   
person in the world that was truly meant for them. In the real world, in which I was forced   
to exist, people settled.

I'm afraid I must go off on a rant now because it is important that you understand   
just how different my world was from the one I actually had to live in.   
In college my roommate from freshman year proclaimed herself a lesbian. Ironically   
she never had a girlfriend. She did however; seem to have a harem of guys she rotated as   
boyfriends whose sexual peculiarities I had the great misfortune of having to hear about. I   
had slightly better luck with my next roommate who once returned after a two-day   
disappearance to tell me she had gotten drunk and done things with a guy whose name she   
didn't know. The night was followed by a trip to Planned Parenthood and a day of misery   
dealing with the side effects of the Morning After pill.

That, my friends, is the real world with real people doing things that in the grand   
scheme of things were perfectly 'normal'. Those things never once came into play in my   
fantasies. In my world, only people in love 'made love' and they married, had children, and   
lived happily ever after.

Please don't laugh! I understand perfectly the cynicism with which you are no doubt   
viewing my description of my dreams. I understand because even I am capable of seeing that   
these ideals of mine are nothing but the delusional dreams of a young woman whose life is so   
empty and who is frustrated with the chaotic realities of the world that she creates a world in   
which nothing goes wrong, romance is in full bloom, and relationships are an effortless   
endeavor. 

It is at this point in my life you come to know me. I am Serena, the dreamer. I am a   
junior in college, of legal drinking age, with a group of friends whom while perfectly sane,   
barely understand me. All except for one really. 

Mina, my best friend in the entire world, dreams right along with me. We both seem   
to share a brain most of the time. At some point in our long friendship we drew each other   
into a world only the two of us seemed to know exist. Together we shared the fantasies of   
beautiful men waiting for the right women to love, which, by coincidence, would naturally   
be us.

Personally, and don't tell Mina I said so; I think she has a better chance of finding   
the right man than I do. For crying out loud I didn't even know any guys! She knew a good   
dozen, none that she would even consider, but at least she was aware of their existence. I, on   
the other hand, lived in this vacuum where men were just those people in pants you saw in   
your Art History class. Occasionally they spoke and I discovered that they had deep voices   
but they still, however, remained as mysterious as Stonehenge.

So, just when I was convinced that I was going to spend the rest of my life in an   
impeccably decorated high-rise apartment with three cats, a coffee addiction, bitter and   
alone, providing I ever graduated college, Mina burst into our dorm room all out of breath   
with her blonde hair flying everywhere. She looked like a hyperactive fuzzy elf.

"I just met your soul mate!" She screeched in a high-pitched voice that had me   
wincing. She sounded…well she sounded like me after a coffee half-filled with sugar. I didn't   
even give the slightest bit of credence to her statement. She must have just read the latest   
Catherine Coulter novel. 

"Really?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Serena didn't you just hear me?" She questioned as though she seriously expected   
me to believe that crap. 

"Oh come on Mina, you seriously don't expect me to believe you met my soul mate.   
We don't believe in that stuff, or did you forget? One Jude Deveraux novel and you go over   
the edge." I shook my head and went back to staring at my computer. "Anyway," I added, "if   
he's my soul mate, how would _you_ know?"

"You know Serena, you take cynicism to a whole new level."  
I raised an eyebrow at that comment. "Look who's talking? Weren't you the one who   
told me that all men are evil and should be shot just this morning?"

"Well that was before I met Raye at the café after class today."

"Well, if we're going to be indulging in this fantasy of yours," I began, feeling a story   
coming, "you may as well tell me everything and don't leave anything out. He'd better be   
gorgeous too!"

"That's the understatement of the century!" She squealed. "If I weren't so sure he was   
your soul mate, I would want him for myself."

"Well, go on!" I snapped, getting excited. Even though I doubted this would get   
either of us anywhere, I was more than willing to indulge in a little fantasy. It was, after all, the   
mainstay of my existence.

"Ok, as I was saying, The Bitch (a friendly name for our dear friend Raye) called me   
on my cell phone and demanded that I meet her for lunch at the new Café they just opened   
off Third Street," Mina began. It was just like Raye to demand things like that; it is that   
special part of her personality that makes her loveable to us. No matter how obnoxious she   
is; she is still our Raye.

"So there we were sitting around chit-chatting. Raye kept going on and on about this   
guy Calvin she's head over heels for. He has a girlfriend and no clue. I was trying to pay   
attention and I kept zoning out, which you know annoys her to no end, so of course we   
spend the next five minutes yelling at each other and embarrassing ourselves…"

"Just get to the point already Mina! The guy!" I yelled. Mina has this unbelievable   
ability to make a story so long that no matter how interesting she makes it, and it often is,   
you just want to scream after a while from the suspense of it all, and I usually do.

"Ok, ok already! Keep your pants on, I'm getting there!" 

I sighed and smiled in encouragement.

"Anyway, it was like it was in slow motion or something. One moment I was sitting   
there trying to prove to Raye that I was listening to her and this guy walks in through the   
front door. I swear my mouth almost fell open!"

"What did he look like?" I questioned hurriedly, getting into the spirit of a moment   
recaptured.

"He was so gorgeous! He was a little over six feet; I know how you like tall men."   
She smiled at me. "He had jet black hair that was just perfect and blue eyes like I've never   
seen before. You know how most people have blue eyes that are sort of pale and bland?" I   
nodded. "Well his are nothing like that. They were the deepest, darkest blue I have ever seen   
and his lashes were so long. I would describe his face but that would be too hard so you'll   
just have to settle for gorgeous, drop dead gorgeous, model gorgeous, perfect!"

"Are you sure you don't want him for yourself?" I asked. Her description was sending   
my imagination off on a trip I'd rather not take. It would hurt too much. It was best I focus   
on finding an apartment that allowed pets, a good job, and rescuing a nice little kitten.

"He's all yours trust me!" Mina said excitedly.

"And exactly how did you come by that decision?" I asked.

"Well, when he passed by me, his hand brushed my arm. He was wearing the most   
gorgeous wool coat, Serena. It was jet black and full length like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix,   
only cooler and he was wearing a suit, an Armani suit!" 

I sighed. Fashion majors!

"Well, he just said 'sorry' in the deepest voice and smiled and I just knew! I can't   
really explain it. There was just something about the way he said it and his voice that just   
made me say: this is the man for Serena."

She looked at me and we both sighed together knowing that the chances of my   
meeting this guy and actually having him fall head over heels with me was practically nil but   
the fantasy she had given me was well worth it.  
  


Weeks later I was sitting in the same café with Mina and Raye. Neither of us had   
seen that guy ever again and Raye thought we were both nuts for even thinking about it   
although she seemed equally interested in seeing him again as well. It was strange, and I   
didn't mention it to anyone because of its oddity, but I was seriously curious about this guy.   
I desperately wanted to meet this supposed soul mate of mine. I should have forgotten the   
whole thing all together but for whatever reason, maybe loneliness and longing, I held on to   
that story Mina had told me.

Raye was going on and on about Calvin again and quite frankly it wasn't a story I   
wanted to hear again. I excused myself to get a cup of coffee to replace the water I had been   
drinking. I went up to the counter and ordered the latte grande I had been craving and   
waited patiently for them to put it together. 

Coffee in hand, I turned around to return to the table. The lid was half off because,   
as was usual for me; I would need to dump at least eight packets of sugar in before I could   
drink it. As I swung around, coffee in hand, I bumped right into the person directly behind   
me, and the hot coffee spilled over us both. My "gravitational impairment" also known as   
Serena's klutziness had won once more.

I began my hurried apologies, something I was actually quite used to, wiping at the   
man's black coat hurriedly with the napkin in my hand, trying my best to clean up the mess   
I'd caused. He reached his hand up to take the napkin from me, to do the cleaning himself   
rather than be further subjected to my useless attempts, and his hand brushed against my   
own.

"It's okay," he began to say in his deep voice but never finished his sentence as his   
hand came into contact with my own. It was like an electric shock. I suddenly looked up   
into what had to be the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. He was unbelievable and in an   
instant I knew this was the one. It was quite a long time before I grew embarrassed at staring   
at him with my mouth open as though I were hoping to catch flies. 

"I'm sorry," I whispered realizing for the first time that my hands were still held   
within his own, if somewhat tighter than before. I still couldn't draw my eyes away from his   
face and he seemed to be staring at me equally intent. 

"It's okay," he repeated, not for an instant taking his eyes of my face. There was   
something happening here, something I couldn't begin to explain. And to think a few days   
ago I would have sworn to be an expert on romantic moments, having studied the literature   
so well.

Still, nothing had prepared me for the electricity, the intense attraction, the need to   
be close. I could feel myself drawing even closer to him, not just physically, but on every level   
possible. The totality of the connection was amazing. Without words I understood his   
feelings and it was the strangest, most intense, and completely rapturous feeling I had ever   
experienced and yet I knew there was more. 

There was an understanding between us by whatever strange powers of fate had   
caused this meeting, that we would not part today or ever of our own choice. In the few   
short moments that we stood staring at each other a bond was formed that reduced my   
cynicism to naught but ashes. Love at first sight was not only possible; it was mine. Whatever   
the risks, the obstacles, I would spend the rest of my life with this man. 

"I know this is going to sound strange" he began softly, rubbing my hand with his   
fingers, the napkin having fallen, neglected, to the floor. 

"No, I don't think it will," I interrupted. He smiled, the most beautiful smile.

"Then you'll understand if I say something just happened to us and whatever it was   
scares me. But somehow I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want you to   
be the mother of my children, the woman I grow old with. Do you understand?" I nodded.

"I do," I whispered.

"Remember those words," he said smiling. "I promise you'll have to say them again."   
He ran his other hand over my cheek and kissed me gently on the lips. His kissed deepened   
from its soft gentle beginnings to something far more passionate than I had ever experienced   
in my life. I blushed brightly, knowing my friends and just about everyone else in the café   
were watching intently. 

If I could have seen Mina's face at that moment I knew she was crying tears of joy   
and that Raye was staring at us in shock. At that moment I'd never loved her more and I'd   
remember to thank her for this, the love of my life.


End file.
